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Not-for-Profit Play about famous Kentucky Derby Jockey Jimmy Winkfield to be performed in Louisville

Announcement published by Randolph Hollingsworth on Friday, April 29, 2016

Type:

Event

Date:

April 30, 2016 to May 6, 2016

Location:

Kentucky, United States

Subject Fields:

African American History / Studies, American History / Studies, Theatre & Performance History / Studies, Sport History & Studies, European History / Studies

The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights shares this information with you.

Cisco Montgomery, a 501 c 3 organization, will perform a nonprofit production of a play by Larry Muhammad about the Kentucky Derby winning jockey, Jimmy Winkfield. It will be performed at the Henry Clay Theater in Louisville, Ky. See below for times and details.

"Jockey Jim"A play by Larry Muhammad, April 30, May 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, about Jimmy Winkfield, a black jockey from Lexington, Kentucky.

"On May 7, racegoers will marvel at jockeys perced on metal stirrups in perfect sync with 1,000 pound thoroughbreds running at 40 mph. Trainers and owners fight over these top riders for major international races. And arguably the first superstar jockey on an interncontinental scale was Kentucky-born, two-time Derby winner Jimmy Winkfield. He dominated racetracks spanning a quaert of the globe, earning $100,000 a year in the early 1900s. Winfield rubbed shoulders with royalty, married an heiress, and counted Josephine Baker, Bing Crosby and Paul Robeson among his admiring friends. His fantastic saga, with all the backside intrigue and fortunes changing hands against the backdrop of 20th century war and upheaval, is performed live each night of Derby week in the play JOCKEY JIM. Last of the great black jockeys, Winkfield won the Derby in 1901 and 1902, then went to Russia and became a national phenomenon, He helped evacuate the racing community during the Bolshevik revolution, relocated to France, and was a prosperous trainer until Nazi occupation during World War 2 forced his return almost destitute to a racially segregated America, where black jockeys had become unknown figures of a forgotten past. Suddenly the famous black horseman and his aristocratic wife were transformed into a stable hand and domestic servant, struggling to hold together a mixed marriage that was illegal in most states. Though haunted by ghosts of greatness past and ridiculed as a lunatic and preposterous liar, Winkfield used competitive drive and equestrian genius to overcome bigotry and reclaim a forgotten legacy."